The Eternal Buffytastic™ Thread Part IV (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Kleist]

Actually, I feel that 1 and 2 are fairly "same", 3 is a bridge, 4 and 5 have a very similar vibe, and 6 and 7 are their own entities

 

[Dan Rudolph]

I liked season 6 except for Wrecked, which I feel suffered the same problem as Angel's She in that it took a methaphor way too far so that the subtext became text. And unlike She, it was a major arc episode and can't be glossed over. It was, in essence, a "very special" Buffy.

I'm rewatchign season 4 and find I liek it a lot better the second time around. Whiel I'm still not big on the Adam storyline, character-wise, you can see the beginnings and middles of many things that take several years to pay off.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Willow stakes vamps in this clip featuring her standin voice, which at best sounds like Ally with a headcold, at worst...well....it's bad people
Check out the third clip for ears bleeding horrificness. I swear they hired some stoned goth to do her.
http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/b...eds/media.html

 

[Dan Rudolph]

THe impression is okay. I can tell which character its supposed to be, but is nowhere near the level of the Sarah impersonator. I think a lot of the problem is the writing, not the acting though. When did Willow become quip-a-punch girl? I already had problems with the game's story (Dawn not being there makes no sense), and this is just making it worse. Not to mention the style of combay doesn't really match Willow.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Dawn is at camp

 

[PhilipG]

Did you notice how good Willow and Xander are at the staking of vampires?! It can take a good four or five stabs for Buffy to get it right in the first game...

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Buffy was that good in the movies of the first game too.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

Dawn is at camp

Of course, this would be set in April and Dawn was pretty much on suicide watch at this point, but sure, why not.

 

[Will Cunningham]

I am disapointed they couldn't get Alyson Hannigan to reprise her voice work. I bet she was just too busy with American Wedding, or perhaps she wanted some closure on her buffy-verse work now that the serries is over and she needs to get out there and avoid being typecast?
One of the problems I had with the first game was the frequency of the one liners. I love the one liners so I don't mind them in concept, the implementation left a lot to be desired. The same quip was repeated endlessly till it went from funny to something you had to tune out to enjoy the game. If the Willow-Voice acting isn't up to snuf and they subject us to thousands of repeated quips, that will add one more needle to the poker of annoyance for us to "put up with".
Don't get me wrong, I have _NO_ doubt I will deal with it, I really enjoyed the first game and am anxiously awaiting the second game. Aug 26 is a date I am looking forward to, a much needed buffy fix. (and a soul caliber II fix to boot!)

 

[Adam Tyner]

So, wow, did "Fray" actually come out today?

BTW, Jeff, I don't know if this is old news, GamePro (sadly, I got a free subscription from one of those spam-collection sites) claims that Joss is among 24 playable characters in multiplayer on "Chaos Bleeds".

 

[Jeff Kleist]

ooooooooooohhhh
Screw Soul Calibur, must earn elusive Joss

 

[Jason Seaver]

Yep, "Fray" came out, and it was pretty good. Capped the series nicely; I'll have to re-read the whole thing to get a better impression.

Joss also does the letter column himself, which you probably won't get in the collection. Mildly amusing, but he's no Bendis (although the "Powers" lettercol has gone downhill since it got too self-aware). The letter/response I liked (and which kind of summed up my frustration with Whedon lately):

The ax is lame, nowhere near as cool as the toy-looking zapgun Mel had, and if this letter probably came well before they started writing Season 7.

Penciller Karl Moline is the star of this, though. Fray looks even better than his work on Route 666 (and that's saying something, as CrossGen seems to get the best out of their people), and he really makes Mel look more mature by the end.

 

[Derek Miner]

I was checking out a new book called SUCCESSFUL TELEVISION WRITING by Lee Goldberg & William Rabkin, which is pretty much a casual overview of what a TV writer's job is like and the elements of the shows they deal with continually.

In defining "What Is a TV Series?" they use BUFFY as an example. These guys are very heavy on the concept of "franchise" - the aspects of a show that remain consistent from week to week that keep viewers interested and returning. What I found amusing about this section is that these guys seem to have uwittingly explained why so many people had issues with the last couple seasons of the show. I don't get the impression they're specifically criticising those episodes, however. It doesn't sound like they've watched anything past Season four even.

Anyway, here's what they wrote:

When you turn on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, say, there are certain elements that you naturally expect you're going to find there. Vampires, for instance - or some kind of evil supernatural threat, anyway. You also want the offbeat humor that comes from seeing those ancient supernatural villains confronted by a group of very contemporary American teens. (Okay, they're moving into their twenties now, but the dialogue has the same zing.) You want to see Buffy kick butt, Willow try to cast a spell, Xander crack jokes, and Giles give that disapproving hmm.

Imagine a Buffy where none of this was present. Instead, Buffy is going on a blind date. He's a nice enough guy, but Buffy's just broken up with her boyfriend, and she's not sure she's ready to commit again. And meanwhile, she's having trouble with a particular concept in one of her college classes. And she's having money troubles, trying to find a few hundred bucks to fix her car.

You might actually make it all the way through this episode, if only to find out what the hell is going on. But if you get to the end and there isn't some bizarre, supernatural twist - oh, Buffy's been hypnotized by some evil demon to forget she's the Slayer, or something like that - you sit there staring at the blank screen and muttering the one phrase that's going through your head:

That wasn't a Buffy.

 

[Sven Lorenz]

Joss has never been one to give the audience what they want

Could we please put an end to this myth ?

Teenage girls wanted Spike to come back - he came back.

Teenage girls wanted Riley gone - he went away.

Teenage girls wanted Spike to become good - he became good.

Teenage girls wanted a Spike and Buffy relationship - they got it.

Teenage girls wanted Spike to get a soul - he got a soul.

Teenage girls wanted Spike on Angel - he turns up on Angel.

Since the fifth season of Buffy Whedon has become a puppet of the extremely loud group of fourteen-year-old SpikeWithoutShirt lovers and has ruined both shows in doing so.

If there ever was a show that was 100% under the control of the female teen audience then it's Buffy after season four.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

I couldnt agree more. Joss gave into the masses the last few seasons or was it Joss since his involvement on the show was limited.

I believe the whole Spike and Buffy romance thing is one of the things that derailed Buffy and I myself would have liked Riley to stick around.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Are parts I and II of this thread archived somewhere? A search only turned up parts III and IV...
Yes, I have some time on my hands. Why do you ask?

 

[Patrick Sun]

The early 2 parts might have been eaten by a hard drive failure a year ago, or so.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

Exactly.

They also wanted Spike to be "not crazy" earlier this season, so Joss ended that early. Spike wasn't supposed to be back to normal until the last third of the season or so.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

They also wanted Spike to be "not crazy" earlier this season, so Joss ended that early. Spike wasn't supposed to be back to normal until the last third of the season or so.

Oh really? Thats the first Ive heard that. Interesting.

I thought that plot point disapeared rather quickly.

Hmmm.

So they pleased all the fan girls and alienated everyone else including SMG?

 

[Robert Ringwald]

In reality, it was UPN who asked Joss to stop the "spike crazy" sub-plot, but they did it because of the cry of girls on the message boards complaining that HOT SPIKE wasn't shirtless and sane enough.